Category Archives: General

The Holy Land Experience

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I nearly forked over the $30 to go to the Holy Land Experience when I was in Florida. Seriously, who wouldn’t want to travel to Florida in order to spend a day at the Wilderness Tabernacle exhibit:

The wondrous and mysterious Wilderness Tabernacle was the heart of worship for the children of Israel as they wandered in the desert following their exodus from Egyptian captivity. Watch the High Priest and experience a live presentation that explains the intricate details of the tabernacle and its prescribed rituals.

Or how about the opportunity to allow your children to view the crucifixion and resurrection at a live presentation done every 30 minutes at the Calvary’s Garden Tomb Exhibit:

Follow the Via Dolorosa, the road on which Christ carried the cross, to Calvary’s Garden Tomb. Spend time resting, praying, or reflecting on the meaning and significance of the empty tomb. Atop the hill stand the crosses of Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified and died for the sins of the world.

Or, if you’re lucky you can take a picture with Moses and his famous stone tablets!

Ok, so here’s my real thoughts with all the sarcasm taken out. This whole Holy Land Experience theme park really disturbs me. I’m imagining the God who fashioned a whip to kick out those who looked to exploit the temple by turning it into a market place. I’m imagining the God who chose to leave heaven in order to live like a poor, enslaved, and eventually tortured human being. I’m imagining the God who was creative enough to make naked mole rats and giraffes. And, well, none of those things seem to fit with the Holy Land Experience. A market place, turning the crucifixion into an attraction, and creativity that is more like poor mimicry than anything else.

Something seems off. I think I’d take my kids to Disneyworld…even if Disney is The Man.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-04-26

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  • Ryan is being serinated by a Peruvian flute band at the airport. #
  • Ryan received two tickets for free adult drinks on his flight today. Thank you southwest. #
  • Ryan Showered at his hotel ‘neath the most glorious and large shower head imaginable. Thank you Clarion. #
  • Ryan is noticing that lots of people in Orlando wear loafers without socks. #
  • Ryan just used the word ‘loafer’ for the first time! Send the confetti!! #
  • Ryan left 85 degree weather in the NW to walk in the rain of orlando…somethings wrong here. #
  • Ryan is wondering if tolerence is just a cheap substitute for grace. #
  • Ryan gets tired of people deconstucting (refering to conversations & thoughts, not physical) and is ready for people to creativly construct. #
  • Ryan just bumped into Jason Williams (NBA player) at the airport which reminded me of the fact that I’ve never used the bathroom on a non.. #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-04-19

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  • Ryan Is glad Jesus rose from the dead. #
  • Ryan ‘s son just called the double blank domino a ‘dormant domino’. He said a dormant volcano has no lava & a dormant domino has no dots. #
  • Ryan wants to ask you a question (or two): from your perspective what are some valid criticisms of the church? And what are some valuable.. #
  • Ryan is willing to let jess marry our future brother-in-law joe because he just cleaned our carpets…and they look so beautiful. #
  • Ryan is going to do his best not to get sunburnt while he’s lounging in Orlando…and while his wife starts a loser club with her dreaded.. #

Post Modern Thought

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I found my son climbing on top of his play kitchen just a few minutes ago. He’s got a climbing structure in his play area for climbing and is not supposed to climb on his other stuff. I asked him if he thought that it was a good choice to climb on his play kitchen and he responded:

Daddy, daddy, dad, dad, I’ve thought about this and I’ve decided that this is a good choice for me. It’s a good choice for me, but it’s not a good choice for you. Maybe its not a good idea for you, but it is for me.

If you’re familiar with the discussion on post modernity and the post modern way of thought, you’d be happy (or grieved) to see that my son apparently is the epitome of today’s generation.

Now and Later

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We live in a tension. We’re supposed to I think. I think health comes when we live in a constant tension between the now and the later. No, I’m not talking about those candies that are way too hard to even eat. I’m talking about the fact that we are often in a position of balancing what we’re doing right this very moment: school, current job, looking for a job, getting married, having children, depressed…fill in your own blank…with what we’re looking toward on the horizon: starting a business, moving cross country, running a marathon, getting in shape, retiring…fill in your own blank…

Right now I find myself in the very center of this tension. I’m looking ahead toward planting a neighborhood church in downtown Vancouver in 2011, but I’m currently passionately committed to my work with Renovatus church. Now…later. East Vancouver…downtown Vancouver. Suburbia…neighborhood. I’m doing my best to value the tension and to find value in the tension.

Jesus preached that tension didn’t he? When he spoke about the kingdom he would say things like the kingdom of heaven can be seen in someone who gives his money to the poor while in the same breath saying that the kingdom of heaven is something that you’ll one day experience when your time on earth is done. He spoke very clearly about joining the kingdom today while at the same time saying that the kingdom will be experienced later. Now and not yet. Now and later. Tension. Jesus would say that the kingdom is at hand, which is translated usually as “near” or “here”. In other words, now and not now.

Some people are stuck in the now. All they can see is their current struggle, their current excitement, their current hill. Your job is your life. Your current struggle is all consuming, everything. You can’t see past today.

Others are stuck in the future. This is where Jess and I tend to land. You’re always looking toward the next big hurdle, the next hill to conquer. Your job right now is an afterthought to the job that you’ll one day have. Your kids are just babies, but once they’re toddlers they’ll be a lot fun. You tend to devalue today because you’re always looking toward tomorrow.

Neither is completely healthy. Health comes when balancing the tension between now and later. Proverbs warns against worrying about tomorrow because tomorrow has enough trouble of its own: all we have is today, so we’ve got to find the joy in it. But Jeremiah speaks of God knowing the plans he has for you, plans for great things: God’s taking you somewhere, somewhere beyond today.

Tension.

And that’s why life is all about Now and Laters.